Hey, finally I have come back! With a new chapter, no less. Have you missed Landyn and July? Have you missed Camp Half-blood? (I'm not going to ask if you have missed me.) Originally, this chapter was supposed to come before Amber's chapter. But blame me; I hadn't been able to finish on time. Anyway, I won't hold you from reading the chapter any longer now. Please enjoy!

-Hazel-

Chapter 2 July

After the little visit from Apollo, Landyn insisted that I should lie for some more time. He shooed the campers out of the room and settled back in the chair beside my cot. So I lay obediently and stared at the ceiling.

"How are you feeling, July?" Landyn asked in a concerned voice.

"Mmmm. Better." I replied sullenly. "How long was I out?"

"Nearly 20 hours." He answered. I cursed myself for being so weak under my breath. Although I had no idea how the four of us ended up scattered like this, I was fairly sure it was my fault. Melinoe was right; I was weak and useless…

"It's ok, July." Landyn comforted. "You didn't die, and that's what really matters." I managed to push the negative thoughts away and gave him a grateful smile. It felt so strange to be comforted by Landyn. And only then did I realize I had never really gotten close to the boy during our quest. Probably because we were too busy fighting monsters. Or because he was talking to June most of the time…Fine, maybe it was because I was too focused on Nico.

"What about you? How are you feeling?" I questioned. I'd decided that I should try to know more about him and give him some support as he gave me.

Landyn was quiet for a while. Then he said: "I'm feeling fine." I turned my head on the pillow and studied his face. He was leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, looking at his hands with sad eyes. He was definitely not feeling fine.

"Tell me what happened." I prompted.

He sighed softly explained briefly.

"…So I took you and brought us to Camp Half-Blood."

"What about June and Nico?" I asked anxiously. Landyn shook his head.

"Honestly, I don't know." He said. I bit my lips, a thousand possibilities running through my head.

"But I'm sure they are ok. They are tough. They must have smashed their pearls the moment they got the chance. Only they transferred to some other place." Landyn assured, putting on a brave smile and patting my hand. A lump formed in my throat. I was so worried about my sister and Nico. Landyn must have felt the same, but he's trying to seem convinced for my sake. I nodded.

After a period of silence, I suggested: "I think I'm well enough to get out of bed now. I want to look around camp. Then maybe we can think of a way to contact my sister."

Landyn considered it for a minute. "Are you sure you're strong enough?" He asked.

"All better." I promised and swung my feet off the bed. I stood up and spread out my arms in emphasis.

"Ok, ok. I see you're fine." Landyn grinned. "Actually, I never got to check out this camp with you in coma." So together, we exited the little infirmary. I found that we were in a large wooden farm house of some sort. It was quite empty. As we made our way out of the house, we passed through a room-a parlor, I guessed-decorated with a lot of thick, leafy grape vines like it was attacked by a purple and green tornado, which was quite unusual. But since no one was there, we couldn't ask anybody about it. We got out on a long porch that appeared to go all the way around the house, looking over to a beautiful valley.

It felt good to be under the sun again, listening to birds chirp and kids laugh. The bright green color of trees and plants stung my eyes. All I had been seeing in Underworld was dark or red. I took a deep breath and enjoyed the fresh air.

"It's nice to be up here again, huh?" Landyn said.

"Yeah." I replied. But in the back of my mind, I sort of hoped we were still in Underworld. Without our lost companions, I just couldn't appreciate the pleasant summer day as I usually would. Just then, I heard clopping voices like hooves hitting on wooden floor. I turned and backed up so fast I almost knocked Landyn down. What I saw was tall middle-aged man. Very tall, indeed, that his head almost touched the ceiling. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard. Oh, how do I explain the weird clopping sounds? He had hooves, obviously. The man was a great white stallion waist-down. I gaped.

"Hello, Chiron." Landyn greeted naturally, as if he saw half-man half-animals every day.

"Landyn." The centaur nodded. "And I see Miss Loras is up already? Will told me Apollo visited but I was seeing Jason and the others off." He explained. Then he turned to me.

"How are you, my child?" He asked kindly.

"F-fine…Mr. Chiron." I managed. "Um, are you the Chiron that trained Jason? No, wait. You were just seeing Jason?" I asked in sudden realization.

"Yes and no." Chiron laughed. "I did train the original Jason thousands of years ago, but I did not train Jason Grace, whom I had just talked with."

"Oh, right." I muttered, feeling a bit embarrassed.

"Well, I've heard from Landyn that you two were ah, questing with Nico di Angelo before arriving at Camp?" He suddenly turned serious.

I nodded, trying to keep down the lump that formed whenever I thought of Nico. "With my sister too. We got separated." I managed.

"I've heard." Chiron said sympathetically.

"Chiron, can we have a drachma to Iris-message them?" Landyn asked. The lump in my throat disappeared immediately. Why hadn't I thought of that? Excitement bubbled in my heart.

"Can we, please?" I echoed eagerly. But Chiron looked at us sadly.

"Sorry, children. I'm afraid Iris-messaging won't work. You don't know where they exactly are, do you? You need to have the precise address."

Landyn's face fell as dramatically as Chinese mask-changing magic. I guessed my expression mustn't have been much better because Chiron sighed and looked genuinely sorry for us. At this moment, a tall blond boy came jogging towards us.

"Chiron!" He said, stopping before us. "Juniper says she got a piece of information that might tell us where Grover is. But she seems quite upset."

Chiron frowned. Then he replied: "Thank you. I'll go to her right now. In times like this, we have to get all the allies we can get." He glanced at us and added: "Will, would you please give these two a tour around camp? And remind the other cabin counselors that we are holding a meeting at eleven." The boy nodded.

"Thank you." Chiron said. "Well, I shall be going." I wanted to ask him what "times" this was but before I could stop him, Chiron gave us a final nod and trotted away.

Will turned to Landyn and me. "Hi, I'm Will Solace, head counselor of the Apollo Cabin. Welcome to Camp." He said in an almost dutiful way, but smiling. I figured that my head counselor was a couple of years older than us. It suddenly occurred to me that Will was technically my older half-brother. Cool, I've always wondered what it was like to have a brother. But the thought also made my heart wrench of the absence of June.

We smiled back and introduced ourselves.

"You're a son of Aphrodite?" Will said to Landyn as he led us down the porch. "I never thought a child of Aphrodite, other than Piper, that is, could go on a quest…uh, no offense."

"None taken." Landyn said easily. I wondered if he ever felt angry about people always judging him because of his parentage. If he did, he surely was good at hiding it.

Will told us about Camp: its magic protections, activities for campers, monsters in the woods, etc. As we walked along, Will pointed out the open-air dining pavilion, the stables, the arena and a bunch of other Greek architectures. I even spotted a beautiful strawberry field and a climbing-wall that strangely glowed red at the bottom.

"You mean it never rains here?" I perked up at once when Will mentioned that the weather at Camp was controlled. I hated rainy days.

Will chuckled. "Yeah. Like that? It's one of my favorite things about camp too."

"Anyway, here we are: the cabins." He said. We'd arrived before the weirdest collection of buildings I've ever seen. Twenty cabins of different designs and styles were arranged like the Greek letter omega. In the middle of the buildings there was a central green and strangely, a fire pit.

"Each cabin represents a god or goddess. Children of one god live together." Will explained, at the same time waving at some guys who were playing basketball on the central green. They had abnormally accurate aims. But some of them stopped playing and stared at me, whispering to each other. A few of them wore curious expressions, while others looked somewhat a bit jealous.

"My half-siblings?" I asked. I guessed Apollo didn't show up and save his children's lives every day. I had been used to being stared at because I almost always had a replica of myself standing beside me. People tend to be interested in twins. But this time, June wasn't with me. The campers recognized me for my dramatic arrival. It made me a bit uncomfortable.

"Yep. I'll introduce you later." Will said. "I have to look for the other cabin counselors now. Why don't you get settled in your cabins? I think you'll be able to figure out which cabin yours is. And July, I've already had someone prepare a bed for you."

"Thanks, man." Landyn said. I thanked him too and we watched him go over to a cabin that had blood red paint splashed on the roof and barbed wire trenches around it. Landyn and I looked at each other.

"Ares." We said together and grinned. The gods and goddesses that the cabins represent were fairly easy to guess. We walked slowly past them, examining the peculiar decorations of each one. We realized that the cabins of goddesses were on one side while the cabins of gods were on the other side. Cabin 6 was a gray building that had an owl carved over the door. Landyn and I decided that it was the Athena cabin. And the cabin with grass on the roof and all kinds of plants flourishing in the window boxes must be the Demeter cabin. Then, a sickly sweet smell of perfume wafted over to us. We looked ahead and instantly knew where the smell came from. Next to a beautiful cabin that was silver and glowing stood an over-sized doll house. At least that was what it looked like to me. The house had a pink door and lace curtained windows. Ironic how the Artemis cabin and the Aphrodite cabin were put beside each other. I glanced at Landyn. He was frowning slightly.

"Not what you expected?" I asked. He shook his head.

"I had expected this." Landyn said. Then to my surprise, he turned to me and grinned. "Looks like they need a house make-over."

"A HUGE one." I agreed, smirking back. "Go and make a difference, Green."

"That sounds like something from an inspiring movie." Landyn laughed. "You sure can find your way to you cabin without me, Miss No-sense-of-direction?"

"I can see it from here, thank you very much." I said, rolling my eyes. He ruffled my hair and walked towards the posh cabin. I turned and started off towards Cabin 5, the one which I guessed was Apollo's.

On the outside, Cabin 5 looked pretty ordinary. It didn't have any crazy décor or eye-ball catching designs. It was as plain as the Artemis cabin. Actually, the two buildings look almost the same, except that the Apollo cabin glowed golden instead of silver.

Before I entered the Apollo cabin, I took a look at the cabin next to it-Cabin 3. It a low blueish-gray building made of sea stone. It would've been sort of cute, except it was empty and sad. Percy Jackson's cabin. I thought. I glanced at the Apollo cabin again and back. Finally, I couldn't resist the urge to peek into Percy's cabin. I walked up to the blue door and put my hands on the doorknob. Surprisingly, it wasn't dusty as I thought it would be. I twisted the knob and pushed the door open gently. I smelled a scent of the salty sea. The inside was just as simple as the outside. There wasn't much furniture either, only two beds, pushed against opposite walls. The windows were looking out to the sea. I took a tentative step forward, then another. As I walked deeper into the room, I noticed the traces of Percy Jackson here and there. A polished bronze shield was hung above one of the bunk beds, beside a…was that a Minotaur's horn? Just then, I caught something glinting in the air. What? I looked up and saw a dozen of miniature bronze figurines hanging from the ceiling. They were glittering as if someone polished them every day. In fact, the whole place was clean and tidy. I couldn't have guessed that its owner had been gone for months.

"Hey." A voice suddenly said. I jumped and twirled around. Leaning on the doorframe was a 17-looking girl with curly red hair.

"I think if Percy had a sister, I would know." She said. "You're not a child of Poseidon, are you?"

"Oh, no. I was just, um, looking around." I stammered. "Sorry, I'll leave right now."

"It's ok. You don't have to be so nervous." The girl said, giving me a bright smile. "You must be the girl they were talking about, the daughter of Apollo who returned from Underworld."

"It's not like I came back from the dead." I muttered. The girl they were talking about? Gods know what stories they made up.

"Well, according to them, you had a close call. Anyways, I'm Rachel." She said.

"Hi. I'm July." I responded.

"Interesting name." Rachel commented. Not the first time I heard. I thought. It painfully reminded me of the deal I made with Nico to tell him the story of the Loras twins' names. I hadn't had the chance to do my part of the deal.

"Are you a friend of Percy's?" I asked as Rachel walked into the room and stopped beside me, reaching up to touch the dangling figurines.

"Yeah. But I'm not a half-blood." She replied, her eyes resting back on me. "I was born with keen sight. That is, I can see through the Mist. Now I am the Oracle of Camp Half-blood."

"Cool. And weird." I said. Rachel laughed.

I was about to ask her about being "the Oracle of camp Half-blood" when I heard Landyn's voice calling.

"Oh, I gotta go. I should've been settling down in my own cabin." I said and started towards the door.

"Your boyfriend's cute, I saw him." Rachel grinned.

"He's not my boyfriend!" I protested, taken back slightly. Rachel shrugged.

"Whatever you say. I'll see you at lunch or some other time."

"Yeah. Bye," I said as I ran for the door. "And believe me, Landyn is really just a friend!" I heard Rachel laughing behind me. When she said that Landyn was my boyfriend, which was ridiculous, June unexpectedly flashed into my mind. I felt that had to defend myself, for her sake. I shook my head and tried to look normal as I greeted Landyn outside the cabin.

"What are you doing in Cabin 3? I thought the Apollo cabin was Cabin 5?" He asked, crossing his arms.

"I'm sorry. But that was Percy Jackson's cabin. I just had to go in." I explained.

"Ok, but listen, the counselors' meeting is about to start." Landyn said in a hurried manner.

"Yeah, so?" As far as I knew, I was no counselor, nor was Landyn one.

He glanced around as if making sure no one could overhear us.

"I heard that a satyr was missing and Chiron seemed to want to launch a search for him—"

"For a satyr?" I blurted. Well, it did seem a bit of an overkill to launch a search for a goat-man. I mean, I've seen dozens of satyrs running around camp.

"He's important, super-powerful, whatever. The point is they are going to call on a quest to find him." Landyn said impatiently. "It might be our only chance to get out of camp and find your sister and Nico."

I stared at him. "We have to take a quest to get out of this camp?" Sure, I was supposed to jump at words "find your sister and Nico" since that was the biggest thing in my mind. But I hadn't expected the time to come so fast. And I had assumed that we could leave camp and start our journey whenever we were ready.

"Yes. If you try to leave camp without permission from Chiron, you'll be either exiled from camp or eaten by harpies." Landyn explained. I nodded slowly in understanding. Chances of Chiron permitting us to leave camp were slim. And even if I could handle the harpies, never being able to come back to Camp Half-Blood would really suck. Although I had just come here, I already knew that camp was the only place for demigods to be safe and feel normal. June would probably get involved in the punishment too, though she never set foot here.

"Ok," I said finally. "So we'll volunteer for the quest?"

"That's right." Landyn grinned. "But first, we need to have a little chat with our helpful counselors."

xxx

Ten minutes later, Landyn with his intriguing, or misleading, face somehow convinced Will and the girl in charge of the Aphrodite cabin that they didn't need to attend the meeting.

So who went to the counselors meeting on behalf of the two cabins? Landyn Green and July Loras, surprise, surprise.

"May I ask what are you two doing here?" Chiron frowned and asked when we walked into the rec room which apparently was the meeting room in the Big House, as the large house I had waken up in was called. I observed over a dozen boys and girls in their late teens crowding around the Ping-Pong table. They stared at us too.

Landyn cleared his voice. "Um, Will tripped over his bow and sprained his ankle. Drew suffocated because her perfume was too much." He announced solemnly. Laughter broke out among the counselors when they heard the terrible fate of the Aphrodite girl.

"But she lived. She's just resting now." Landyn added quickly when he saw Chiron's face darken even more.

"Yeah. No worries. We came as a favor for them." I said helpfully.

The laughter died out eventually, and Chiron studied us for quite some time without saying a word.

I gulped. Maybe this was a bad idea after all. I mean, we can't just fool a thousand year old teacher. But to my surprise, Chiron nodded and said finally: "Very well. Please take your seats and the meeting shall begin immediately."

Ah, I know you have read a lot about a newbie being led around Camp. I hope it didn't bore you out! And about Drew being in charge with Piper away, there's more to come. Please R&R!

-Hazel-